Household food warmers for keeping foods and beverages warm are generally known and offered by different manufacturers. For example, the Dacor Company of Pasadena, USA, distributes such a household food warmer under the name “EDWO30S”. The known household food warmer includes a housing, a drawer which can be inserted into the housing, and has an interior chamber which is bounded by the housing and the inserted drawer, and which is used to accommodate the foods placed on plates. The plates are placed on the top side of a drawer bottom. To heat the interior chamber, the known household food warmer is further equipped with a heating element, which is located at the inner housing wall facing the top side of the drawer bottom, an electrical circuit in which are arranged a first electrical switch for switching on the heating element, and a temperature sensor for measuring the interior chamber temperature.
A household food warmer of this kind is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 6,191,391 B1. The known household food warmer has an electrical circuit in which a temperature sensor and a switch are arranged in series with the heating element; the temperature sensor and the switch being connected in parallel with each other. Depending on the position of the first electrical switch, the heating power of the heating element can be set by the on-time thereof. As soon as the temperature in the interior chamber of the household food warmer is lower than a predetermined setpoint temperature, the temperature sensor, which is designed as a temperature-controlled switch, is closed, and the heating element is switched on, independently of the position of the first electrical switch. Once the setpoint temperature is reached, the temperature-controlled switch opens, and the heating power is dependent on the position of the first electrical switch.
An oven having a convection fan is known from German Patent Application DE 42 37 570 A1, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. However, when a switching condition that is dependent on the temperature sensor is reached, the convection fan is not switched off via a second electrical switch by means of a relay, but by the temperatures sensor itself, the temperature sensor being designed as a temperature-controlled switch. Moreover, the above document only reveals that the second electrical switch can be operated manually, and that the heating element and the convection fan can be switched on together by the second electrical switch. Thus, it is up to the user when to switch on the convection fan for purpose of quick heating. In the context of the subject matter of the above document, the heating element and the fan are jointly connected into the circuit in addition to the already energized top heating and bottom heating elements in order to provide full heating power during a heat-up phase. For a subsequent continued heating phase, the heating power is reduced by switching off the heating element along with the convection fan.